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24/06/2008
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Jordan is in an uproar over the revival of the "Jordanian option" - the thesis that Jordan is the true home to the "Palestinians." Reports that a top advisor to US Presidential candidate John McCain is promoting this idea have led to a flurry of press reports in the Arab media, as well as a denial from Jordan's King Abdullah himself. Some officials in Israel and the United States, however, feel it's the only way to prevent the formation of a Palestinian state.
Though Arabs today call Israel "Palestine," MK Benny Elon (National Union) told IsraelNationalNews that in this case, "the words 'Palestinian homeland' can mean Jordan as well... Certainly Abdullah himself remembers that the original Palestine includes Jordan - but perhaps he assumes that everyone else does not." Elon was referring to the fact that the area of Palestine, as recognized by the League of Nations and the British rulers nearly 100 years ago, includes what is today Israel and Jordan. King Abdullah's remarks, therefore, can mean precisely the same idea that Elon has been promoting: The Arabs of Judea and Samaria should be "annexed" to Jordan.
For years, Elon has been promoting a peace plan called The Right Road to Peace, or the Israel Initiative, as an alternative to the accepted Roadmap two-state solution. "The establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (the West Bank) will only prolong the Arab-Israeli conflict and exact a heavy toll in human life," Elon explains.
Elon explained that Jordan is very wary of having on its western border a Hamas state, which a future Palestinian state is likely to become. "Jordan also has an increasingly extremist-Muslim Iraq to contend with on its eastern border - a very uncomfortable situation for King Abdullah," he continued. Elon noted that the Jordanian monarch dispatched his former Prime Minister Abdel Salam al-Majali to discuss the plan with the Israelis.
"If Jordan knows that the plan is serious, and has the support of the United States, and that it can work, it will support it," Elon said.
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16/06/2008
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The Knesset is discussing at this hour four non-confidence motions aimed at toppling the government. The coalition is expected to defeat the motions.
National Union Knesset Member Benny Elon surprisingly called for a national unity government, stating that "the public has no faith in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert."
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28/05/2008
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A group of bipartisan US congressmen is urging reform in UNRWA, the UN body that deals exclusively with Palestinian refugees and their descendants, and calling for alternative solutions to the containment of refugees in squalid camps.
"The Palestinian refugees have been used as political pawns for the past 60 years by people who don't want peace in the Middle East," said Congressman Eliot Engel (D-New York) at a meeting of international parliamentarians hosted last week by the Congressional Israel Allies Caucus, a bipartisan pro-Israel parliamentary group.
"Instead of resettling them, UNRWA keeps them in refugee camps," Engel said. "The Palestinians are in the refugee camps because the Arab nations want them in refugee camps in order to perpetuate political hatred against Israel."
"It has been a big mistake not to deal with the issue of the Palestinian refugees," MK Benny Elon (NU/NRP), who favors dealing with the issue head-on for humanitarian reasons, said at the Capitol Hill gathering. A cornerstone of Elon's recent diplomatic initiative includes dismantling UNRWA and resettling the Palestinian refugees into countries outside of Israel, in keeping with longstanding Israeli policy that an influx of refugees would demographically damage the country's character as a Jewish state. "Without the rehabilitation of Palestinian refugees, no peace will come," Elon said at the conference, which he attended as chairman of the Christian Allies Caucus.
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20/05/2008
JTA Breaking News
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Pro-Israel lawmakers from 13 countries will meet in Washington to affirm support for Israel. The conference, to take place in one of the congressional office buildings attached to the Capitol, will devote a session to the consideration of ways to end the refugee status of millions of Palestinian.
Benny Elon, the chairman of Israel's National Union Party and of the Knesset's Christian Allies Caucus, will attend and will promote the refugee component of his "Israeli initiative," which rejects the two-state solution favored by the Bush administration, Israel and the Palestinian Authority. His plan would annex the West Bank to Israel while making its Palestinians citizens of Jordan; Jordan rejects the plan.
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20/05/2008
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Washington D.C – May 14, 2008: MK Binyamin Elon, Chairman of the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus ( www.cac.org.il) will gather together with the chairmen of the 12 international sister caucus’ at the inaugural Chairman’s Conference. The conference will be held on Capital Hill May 21-22 nd. The Chairmen’s caucus will be hosted by the Chairman of the Congressional Israel Allies Caucus, Congressman Dave Weldon (R) and Congressman Elliot Engel (D) for the two day event. Parliamentarians from Israel, EU, South Africa, Switzerland, Japan, Philippines, Brazil, Uruguay and Canada will be in attendance for the Conference.
The two day conference will focus on United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian Refugees issue which is a major component of MK Elon’s “Israeli Initiative”. Other issues being discussed at the conference include the plight of the forgotten Jewish refugees, and the peace process: challenges & opportunities and the plight of religious minorities in the Middle East. A variety of Congressman,
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